Urban Infrasound Observations - Examples from July 4th 2012
Abstract
Historical observations indicate that urban environments are rich in infrasound signals and thus provide the opportunity to characterize sources, monitor propagation path effects, and document diurnal and seasonal variability in the urban acoustical noise environment. If infrasound is to be used as viable signal for monitoring the urban environment and for identifying human and natural activities, the following key scientific issues must be examined: (1) What are the typical infrastructural sources of infrasound and their levels? (2) How saturated is the urban environment with infrasonic signals, i.e., do many signals propagate over long distances to reach a given sensor, or can individual sources be well differentiated? (3) Does infrasound provide new information to characterize rapidly evolving physical, cultural, economic, and military actions of interest? Each of these issues will be addressed with the acquisition and analysis of data from this observational study, including an analysis of the seasonal variation in infrasound noise and propagation effects. Such studies differ from typical infrasound work in that the propagation paths are short, i.e. ~1- 100 km, and signal frequencies can extend from the infrasound band to the low frequency acoustic band (100 Hz). We have begun a study to address some of the unique infrasound research questions and sources found in an urban environment. Our initial investigation of the data and a description of the identified noise and source signals are reported here. Three seismo-acoustic arrays were deployed on rooftops across the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas, to characterize the urban infrasound environment. The first rooftop array, the Moody Coliseum, includes four elements at the corners of a 38m square and one element in the center. A seismometer is included at the central element. The second Multi-rooftop Array is spread across multiple building rooftops and has a 140m aperture. The third array, the Heroy Building Rooftop Array, is a two-element 30m line on a single rooftop. Large-scale fireworks displays in Dallas on 4 July 2012 provided an opportunity to identify and characterize known signals in an urban setting. The identified events were associated with one of these fireworks displays about 2 km from the arrays. Signals from these sources were used to tune processing parameters for an automatic coherent detection process, Progressive Multichannel Correlation Method (PMCC). PMCC was then used to scan the data for all possible firework sources in the urban environment and determine temporal, back azimuth, apparent velocity, and frequency information about the sources. The signal frequencies seen were 10-80 Hz and documented the details of the nearly 30 minute firework show. The resulting PMCC analysis showed potential to effectively identify other, lower frequency sources in the urban environment. These data were also is used to characterize the noise environment. Significant roof-to-roof noise differences may be related to the building configurations and mechanical equipment, as well as the interactions of the winds with the structures. During the evening of July 4th , additional ground deployed infrasound gauges provided a comparison of free surface and rooftop measurements. Permission to publish was granted by Director, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A53B0147M
- Keywords:
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- 3360 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Remote sensing;
- 3399 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / General or miscellaneous